Window blind



J. RABINOW WINDOW BLIND March 15, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 29,1963 INVENTOR Jacob Rab/now Resilient ATTORNEYS march '15, 1966 5Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 29, 1963 Fig. 4

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1 x t /6c x x 44 a /4 INVENTOR Jacob Rab/now ATTORNEYS United StatesPatent Ofiice 3,240,260 WINDOW BLIND Jacob Rabinow, 6920 Selkirk Drive,Bethesda, Md. 20034 Filed Oct. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 319,7M Claims. (Cl.160-166) This invention relates to blinds, and particularly todecorative and functional window blinds.

My invention pertains to the kinds of blinds which fall in the generalclassification of Venetian blinds. The conventional Venetian blind usingladder tapes to support horizontal slats, cords to tilt the slats, andother cords to raise and lower the blinds are, in many respects,satisfactory. This is particuarly true of modern blinds for standardwindow sizes, which can be acquired at reasonable costs. However, oddsize Venetian blinds particularly in large sizes, are quite expensive.

Conventional Venetian blinds exclude light and provide privacy. However,they are often considered to be unattractive, and as having little or nodecorative value. p

In fact, in many cases Venetian blinds are fully or partially hiddenbehind draperies. It is often suggested that if it were not for theexcellent light-exclusion and privacy features of Venetian blinds, fewwould ever be used.

In a sense, a more serious problem arises in cleaning the blinds.Sometimes a person will try to wash the Venetian blind while it ishanging at the window. This is very difiicult because each slat has tobe individually washed, and it is almost impossible to wash the laddertapes (particularly if they are made of cloth) while the blind ishanging at the window. More often the blind is removed from the window,washed and replaced. Handling the blind during washing is difficult, asis removing and replacing it. This is particularly so if the blind isinstalled very high, as twelve or fifteen feet above the floor in adwelling or other building having a high window.

As a possible improvement over horizontal slat Venetian blinds, verticalslat blinds are sometimes used. Typical examples of vertical slat blindsare found in U.S. Patent Nos. Re. 20,965; 2,828,816; and 2,611,426.However, they do little to alleviate the difficulty in washing theblinds except, perhaps, that they collect less dust.

An object of my invention is to provide a blind which eliminates orgreatly diminishes the above problems and difiiculties, and at the sametime is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to install.

A typical embodiment of my blind uses a header assembly and a baseassembly, each containing a set of hooks, rollers or the equivalent. 1have a one-piece continuous strip looped or reeved around the hooks orrollers, alternately one roller in the header assembly and a roller inthe base assembly. Accordingly, my blind presents an appearance somewhatlike the blinds in the above patent. However, the single-flexible stripforming the main body of the blind provides unusual features includingeconomy, attractiveness and practicability.

Considering first the question of economy, instead of individual slatsand ladder tapes as in the horizontal slat Venetian blinds, or insteadof individual vertical strips with fasteners at the top and bottom ends,I use a considerably more inexpensive single strip of woven or nonwovenplastic, cloth, paper, paper product, etc. Thus, my blind has fewerparts, and assembly of the strip to the rollers can be left to thepurchaser. Another feature having a bearing on economy is that it costsvery little more for a long blind because extra length is provided byusing a longer strip. No special cutting securing, etc. is required tofit the window in the vertical dimension. Instead, the strip is merelythreaded over the hooks or rollers, and the excess strip cut off. Thehorizontal di- 3,24%,269 Patented Mar. 15, 1966 mension of the window isalso easily fitted. For instance, the upper and base assemblies can beeither made in a variety of sizes, or for non-standard windows theassemblies can be made in long sections with score marks (or the like)along the length thereof so that they can be broken off (or otherwisesevered) to size.

My blinds are at least as attractive as the blinds disclosed in abovepatents and can be made considerably more attractive and versatile. Thesingle ribbon or strip forming the main body of my blind can be soinexpensive as to be disposable, with the advantage that it may bereplaced by a strip of a different material, or color, texture, etc. Thestrip is very easy to remove and replace, making it simple and practicalto remove and dye or tint, and then replace. Since my blind uses acontinuous, onepiece strip as its main body, the decorator, housewife,etc., can exercise decorative ingenuity such as by gathering and tyingback sections of the tape on one or both sides of the blind so that theblind assumes an appearance more like window draperies or tie-backcurtains than a blind.

The header assembly of my blind is preferably permanently installed atthe top of the window frame, while the lower, or base, assembly can beeither permanently fixed or made to lift and lower. Many forms of myinvention have roller supports mounted as cantilevers, thereby leavingone end open so that loops of the strip formed over and under therespective rollers can be horizontally slid on and off the rollers.Other embodiments use hooks which can simply be the supports withoutrollers. Thus, the continuous, single piece strip can be very easilyremoved and replaced. This is stressed because the bandling of a verylightweight strip not only for removal and replacement but also forwashing is a far simpler task than handling an entire Venetian blind ofeither the horizontal slat or vertical strip type.

As mentioned previously many Venetian blinds are very difficult toremove because the header box is in stalled high above the floor. Myinvention can do nothing directly to overcome the height problem, exceptit is considerably easier to handle a lightweight strip from the top ofa step ladder than it is to handle a Venetian blind from the same stepladder. Furthemore, since I use a continuous strip for the main body ofthe blind, it is not necessary to remove the strip in order to wash it;nor is it necessary to remove one strip before replacing it withanother. Both of these operations are easily performed. For washing theblind while it is in place it is only necessary to pull a part of thestrip lengthwise of itself with one hand while clamping a wet cloth(with the other hand) against the two surfaces of the strip. If desired,a hand-crank operated reel can be used for propelling the strip in acirculating mode While so cleaning the strip. In order to replace astrip with another without prior removal of the original strip, the newstrip can be attached to one end of the existing continuous strip andthe existing strip pulled through the circuitous path between therollers of the header and lower assemblies. Thus, the existing stripwill act as a leader for the new strip which, when fully inserted, canbe disconnected from the original strip.

Accordingly, another object of my invention is to provide a blindcharacterized vby a continuous, flexible strip forming the main body ofthe blind.

In a simple form of my invention the header and lower assemblies can befixed in which case the blind cannot be raised and lowered. However, thestrip portions spanning the window can be turned about theirlongitudinal axes or twisted to open and close the blind.

In other forms of my invention the lower assembly including its set oftape supports can be raised and lowered (in addition to the stripturning adjustment) to enable the window below the lower assembly to beparticularly or completely uncovered. Whether partially raised orlowered, both sets of tape supports can be turned through the same angleso that the strip portions turn but do not twist. Alternatively one setof supports can be turned to a greater or a smaller angle than the otherset to produce a number of interesting twist-effects.

A further object of my invention is to provide a versatile blindproviding a number of possible adjustments to arrange the blind fordesired degrees of privacy and light exclusion, while providing variousornamental effects.

Other objects and features will become apparent in following thedescription of the illustrated forms of the invention which are given byway of example only.

FIGURE 1 is a schematic elevation view of a window opening with a simpleform of my blind mounted therein.

FIGURE 2 is a schematic view similar to FIGURE 1, but showing a secondembodiment of my blind.

FIGURE 3 is a schematic elevational view showing another embodiment ofmy blind.

FIGURE 3a is a schematic view showing an ornamental effect achieved bymy blind.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary elevational view, part shown insection, and illustrating structural details of my blind.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken on line 55 of FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 66 of FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary front view of another modification.

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of a self-adjustinghook for the strip of FIGURE 7, but which can be used in otherembodiments.

FIGURE 9 is an end view of the self-adjusting hook.

FIGURE 10 is a schematic view showing one of my blinds mountedhorizontally.

The blind shown in FIGURE 1 is mounted in window opening 10, with headerassembly 12 attached to the top of the window frame, and lower or baseassembly 14 attached to (or slightly above) the window sill. Eachassembly has a respective set of hooks 13 whose axes are in an upper anda lower plane. A single, continuous strip 16 of suitable flexiblematerial (as mentioned before) is reeved or engaged over the top andunder the bottom hooks in the manner shown. The ends 18 and 20 of thestrip may be joined, by means of a tensioning device 19 such as a fiator coil spring, a rubber strip or the equivalent. The end portions ofthe tape can pass under the base assembly, with the tensioning device 19below assembly 14, or the device can be concealed within assembly 14.Alternatively device 19 can be omitted, allowing strip ends 18 and 20 tosimply hang with or without weights in FIGURE 30 and 7), or they can beattached to the lower sides of the window.

As shown in FIGURES l and 3, the hooks of the upper set are laterallyoffset from the lower hooks. However, this is not a rigid requirement(as shown in FIGURE 7). In the embodiment of FIGURE 1 the hooks of theupper and lower assemblies can be adjusted about vertical axes to openand close the blind, but the lower assembly 14 cannot be raised andlowered. When the hooks of one assembly are turned through the sameangle as the other, the portions or sections of strip 16 spanning thewindow are turned but are not twisted. When the turning angles aredifferent, ornamental twists are introduced into the strip portions.

The embodiment of FIGURE 2 is similar to that of FIGURE 1 except thatlower assembly 14 is not fixed, and strip 16 is engaged with rollers 50mounted on roller supports instead of books. The blind is capable ofbeing raised and lowered by using the same strip 16 which is used toform the main body of the blind. Instead of joining the strip ends 18and as in FIGURE 1 they are brought out together over guides 21 and 22which can be attached to the window frame (FIGURE 2). By pulling bothends of the strip in the same direction, assembly 14 will move up towardheader assembly vertically opening the blind. This can be done directlyby hand, or a crank and reel 23 assembly can be provided for thispurpose. By pulling only one end, e.g., end 18, strip 16 can be made toshift in the blind. Continuous pulling will remove the strip asdescribed before. By joining ends 18 and 20 and pulling the strip in onedirection, the strip can be made to circulate through the blind andthrough a cleaning station, as described.

Since my blinds use a one-piece continuous strip 16, decorative effectscan be achieved, which would not be possible in a blind using individualstrips (due to the fixed length of each strip portion). For instance(FIG- URE 3a), I can gather one half (more or less) of the stripportions, and the gathered portions can be tied-back as at 32 to providea drapery or a tie-back curtain appearance. Then, after tying, the upperand/or lower sets of rollers can be adjusted to provide othertwisteffects. The ties 32 can be higher or lower than shown, and theblind can be partially raised before tying for stillfurther effects.None of the above arrangements could be made if the strip 16 were not inone piece. The reason is that some of the strip portions between theupper and lower assemblies become longer than others, and my one-piecestrip is self-compensating as to length, and the exact total length isnot critical. When more total length is required, spring 19 stretches,or additional strip is wound off reel 23, or the weights or the baseassembly lifts a very short distance. (The non-critical aspect of thetotal strip length makes shrinkage of the strip, e.g., because ofwashing, especially in a washing machine, completely unimportant.)Further decorative effects are possible by having the lower hooks (orrollers) laterally offset from the upper (FIGURE 3) or in verticalalignment (FIGURE 7, described later).

Attention is directed to FIGURES 46 showing the details of constructionof my blinds. The header assembly 12 is shown mounted in opening 10 andheld in place by screws 42 or the equivalent. Both the header assembly12 and the base assembly 14 can be made with a very thin profile. Forexample, header assembly 12 consists of an upwardly opening channel 46approximately a quarter of an inch deep, which the hooks or the rollersupports 48 project vertically therefrom less than an inch. Furthermore,the roller supports can be made vertically shorter by reducing thediameter of the rollers 56, or as stated above by omitting the rollersand using the supports themselves (as the hooks 13) to support the strip16. Each roller support consists of a short spindle 52 extending throughan opening in the bottom of channel 46, a right angularly extending part53 with a right angle arm 54 at one end, to which the horizontal rollerspindle 55 (same as hook 13) is fixed. The roller, preferably of mouldedplastic, is slipped onto spindle 55 and held against axial motion bymember 54 and locking ring 56 (or the equivalent) in the recessed end ofthe roller. Rollers 50 can be slightly crowned and/or provided withshort side flanges 58 to prevent strip 16 from sliding therefrom duringnormal use of my blind.

Cranks 60 made of plastic or metal are engaged with spindles 52 of all(except the left end one, FIGURES 4 and 6) of the roller supports.Members 60 can be held fixed to spindles 52 by any suitable means suchas by set screws or by any other conventional fastening expedient. Beingdisposed in channel 46, members 60 prevent roller supports 48 frompulling out from the upper assembly but allow the roller supports to berotationally adjusted about the axes of their spindles 52.

Although various means can be used to simultaneously adjust all of theroller supports or hooks, I have shown (FIGURE 6) an adjusting meanscapable of approximately operation. For this purpose I have a link 64pivoted to one end of each crank 60, and another link 66 with arms 68pivoted to the opposite end of each crank 60. The arms 68 lie below thecranks, while the link 64 is above the cranks (or vice versa). Adjacentends of links 64 and 66 are pivoted to pulley 70 and lie on its oppositefaces. The pulley is located in channel 46 and fixed to the only spindle52 which does not have a crank 60. A beaded chain 72 (or the equivalent)is engaged with pulley 70 (FIGURE 5) and passes over guide pulleys 7 6and 77 in openings at one end of channel 46. When the chain is pulledpulley 7 is rotated thereby causing links 64 and 66 to operate cranks 60and turn the roller supports. Since links 64 and 66 respectively lieabove and below cranks 60 they do not interfere with each other forapproximately 180 rotation.

The lower or base assembly 14 is very similar to the upper assembly. Ithas a plurality of rollers carried by supports identical to supports 48(13 in FIGURE 1) and these, in turn, are mounted for rotationaladjustment in a box beam 82 (FIGURE A box beam is selected (instead of achannel as at 46) so that if the blind is to be elevated, the bottom ofassembly 14 will present a finished appearance. The only otherdifference of significance between the upper and lower assemblies isthat the beaded chain type adjusting means for the rollers or hooks maybe omitted. Such an adjustment mechanism is not required because thebase assembly is ordinarily accessible to the user, and a simpleradjusting means can be used. Accordingly, I have a slot 84 in the frontand rear walls of the box beam 82, and a fiat wheel 86 (or theequivalent) attached to one spindle 52a (FIGURE 5). A part of the wheelsurface projects through the front slot to provide a finger grip bywhich to turn the wheel 86. Since all of the members 60:: (FIGURE 4) areinterconnected by a linkage 64a, 66a (FIGURE 5) similar to links 64 and66, movement of the wheel 86 to the left or the right will cause acorresponding simultaneous adjustment of all of the roller supportsabout their vertical axes. Thus, the lower looped ends of the sectionsof strip 16 can be rotationally adjusted to the same angle (or adifferent angle) as the upper looped ends of the strip sections. Inembodiments where the base assembly is fixed, both sets of rollersupports can be simultaneously adjusted by using a single, closed-loopbeaded chain around pulley 70 and an identical pulley (not shown)replacing wheel 86.

Attention is now directed to FIGURES 79 showing another form of myblind. The strip 16 is engaged with hooks 13 of the upper and baseassembly which are in vertical alignment, i.e., the upper hooks aredirectly above corresponding lower hooks. This is in contrast to theapproximately 50% offset arrangement shown in FIG- URE 3. One feature ofthe FIGURE 7 arrangement is that the back-portions of the strip liebehind the adjacent edges of adjacent front-portions. Also, the artisticpresentation of the two blinds is somewhat different.

Since the back strip portions in FIGURE 7 must be slanted to reach, forexample, from a lower hook of one vertical pair to an upper hook of theadjacent pair, the hooks cannot be exactly horizontal. They must betilted slightly (as shown), and when the blind is adjusted by rotationof the hooks, the tilt angle changes. Accordingly, I have self-adjustinghooks (FIGURES 8 and 9) designed especially for the embodiment of FIGURE7, but which can be used in any of my blinds. Self-adjusting hook 13b isthe same as the previously described hooks, except I have interposed anarticulate joint 90 between the part 53b and spindle 52b to allow thehook to tilt about a horizontal axis as urged by the strip while beingadjusted. Although the joint 90 can be made in many ways I have shown aneye 92 at the end of hook part 53b. The eye is disposed within fork 94at one end of spindle 52b, and a pin 96 couples the eye to the fork. Theother end of spindle 52b is located in the upper as- 6 sembly body 12bcontaining a hook-adjusting means, e.g., like that of FIGURE 6.

There is another feature shown in FIGURE 8 which can be applied to allforms of my blind. Header assembly 12!) has a valance panel 98 whichobscures the hooks and the loops of strip on the hooks.

The blind in FIGURE 3 has weights 15 at the ends of the strip, and Ihave shown a similar weight 15 in FIG- URE 7 to both tension the entirestrip in the blind and to keep the right hand end portion of the striphanging properly. In embodiments where the left and right end portionsare constrained, e.g., by rollers 21 and 22 in FIGURE 3, the two endstrip portions will twist as the hooks (or rollers) are turned, and thesame holds true for the embodiments using weights (FIGURE 3a) or aweight (FIGURE 7). However, to assure that the end strip portions dohang properly and to prevent them from being blown or otherwise movedundesirably, they can be attached to the sides of the window frame byhooks, magnets, etc., or connected to the base assembly byeasilyreleased fasteners. In FIGURE 7 where only one end portion 16changs, only one fastener is required.

Throughout the description of my blinds, I have often referred to upperand header assembly, and lower" and base assembly. Notwithstanding this,it is obvious various forms of my blind can be mounted horizontally(FIGURE 10) instead of vertically with little or no modification. Onedesirable modification for my blind when used horizontally would tend tosimplify the blind. In the horizontal arrangement I do not need anadjusting device such as the illustrated beaded chain 72. Two baseassemblies, (e.g., identical to assemblies 14) could be verticallymounted at the left and right sides of a window (or other) opening 10with both finger operated wheels 86 at the lower corners of the windowopening. My blind would then assume more of the appearance of jalousiewindow or an ornamental louver. To prevent sag (if any) of thehorizontal strip portions, I would normally use one or two springmembers 19a and 1912 at the ends of the strip to keep it tight.

I claim:

1. A blind comprising a first and a second assembly of elongate stripsupporting members, and means constituting the body of the blind, saidmeans comprising a single flat flexible strip of substantially uniformwidth supported by successive members of said assemblies with said striparranged alternately around a member of said rst assembly and thenaround a member of said second assembly and again around successivemembers of both assemblies.

2. The blind of claim 1 wherein the members of at least one of saidassemblies are rotatively adjustable about axes at an angle to saidelongate members, and means to adjust the last-mentioned members aboutsaid axes to turn the portions of the flexible strip supported therebyand consequently adjust the body of the blind in a manner to open orclose the blind.

3. The blind of claim 1 wherein said first assembly is movable and saidstrip has two ends, and means associated with at least one of said endsto displace said first assembly with respect to the other by moving saidstrip lengthwise.

4. The blind of claim 1 wherein said first assembly includes astructural support, means rotationally adjustably connecting the membersof said first assembly to said structural support, the last-mentionedmembers being adjustable between a position at which they areapproximately parallel to the plane of the window and a position atwhich they are at an angle to the plane of the window, and means to soadjust said members and thereby twist the portions of the flexible stripextending between said groups of members.

5. The blind of claim 4 wherein said second assembly includes astructural support, and means rotationally adjustably supporting itsgroup of members so that upon similar adjustment of both groups ofmembers said portions of said strip are turned instead of being twisted.

6. The window blind of claim 1 wherein one dimension of the blind isgoverned by the total length of said strip which is used, and means toforeshorten said strip after the blind is installed at a window andthereby change said dimension to open the blind.

7. In an adjustable blind, a first assembly of strip supporting members,a second assembly of strip supporting members spaced from said firstassembly, means for adjusting the members of at least one of saidassemblies between blind-open and blind-closed respective positions, andmeans forming the body of the blind which is opened and closed inresponse to actuation of said adjusting means, said body forming meanscomprising a one-piece flat flexible strip engaging successive membersof each assembly by alternately being engaged with a member of oneassembly and then a member of the other assembly.

8. A window blind having first and second spaced assemblies adapted tobe positioned across from each other, each assembly including a group ofsupport members, a flat flexible strip of substantially uniform widththroughout its length and forming the body of the blind, said stripsupported on said members by being looped around successive pairs ofmembers where a pair consists of one member of each group, and means toopen the blind by pulling said strip to thereby foreshorten the portionsof the strip between said assemblies and thus move one assembly towardthe other.

9. In a blind for a window, a header assembly including a plurality ofrollers in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the upper edgeof the window opening, means to adjust all of said rollers in said planefrom a position at which said rollers are substantially coaxial to aposition at which the roller axes are approximately at right angles tothe plane of the window, a lower assembly of rollers, means to adjustsaid lower rollers to positions similar to the positions of the headerrollers, a flat flexible one-piece strip looped around and extendingbetween successive alternate header and lower rollers so that portionsof the one-piece strip between corresponding upper and lower rollersconstitute the body of the blind, said strip portions turning from anapproximately coplanar position to multi-plane positions when saidrollers are adjusted from the blind-closed to the blind-open position,and means operative with two end portions of the strip for shorteningthe effective length of said strip portions to thereby lift the lowerassembly.

10. In a window blind, a header assembly including a plurality ofsupport members in an approximately horizontal position substantiallyparallel to the upper edge of the window opening, means to adjust saidsupport members to a position at which said members are at an angle tothe plane of the window opening, a lower assembly of support members,means to adjust the lower support members to positions similar to thepositions of the header members, a flat flexible one-piece strip loopedaround and extending between successive alternate header and lowermembers so that portions of the one-piece strip between correspondingupper and lower members constitute the body of the blind, and said stripportions turning from an approximately coplanar to multi-plan-arpositions in response to adjustment of said support members betweenblind-closed and blind-open positions.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 20,965 1/1939Norton 133 703,773 7/1902 Eckert Q 160-196 736,642 8/1903 Sheridon 16086X 1,984,270 12/1934 Hurxthal et al 226-104 2,520,272 8/1950 Bopp et a1.160176 2,611,426 9/1952 Randall 160-176 2,828,816 4/1958 Nestor 1601662,887,153 5/1959 Longley 160166 HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Primary Examiner.

P. M. CAUN, Assistant Examiner.

1. A BLIND COMPRISING A FIRST AND A SECOND ASSEMBLY OF ELONGATE STRIPSUPPORTING MEMBERS, AND MEANS CONSTITUTING THE BODY OF THE BLIND, SAIDMEANS COMPRISING A SINGLE FLAT FLEXIBLE STRIP A SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORMWIDTH SUPPORTED BY SUCCESSIVE MEMBERS OF SAID ASSEMBLIES WITH SAID STRIPARRANGED ALTERNATELY AROUND A MEMBER OF SAID FIRST ASSEMBLY AND THENAROUND A MEMBER OF SAID SECOND ASSEMBLY AND AGAIN AROUND SUCCESSIVEMEMBERS OF BOTH ASSEMBLIES.